6/16/09

unedited eighth entry from the pocket-sized Moleskin I carried 53+ miles into and out of the wilderness:

"Hiked from Moose Creek RS to Cupboard Creek today. Est: 19 miles(!) We're expecting less than a 4-hr day tom. + will start around 7 am so should be home by mid-afternoon to do laundry before Hamilton Thurs.
Crazy new hip problem. Must decide how best to sleep on it for max recovery. Took 800 mg motrin to try to ease the aching... yikes!"

Editor's Notes:
We made Cedar Flats by 9 am on this day... that's good, in case you've never hiked Selway Trail #4. It means we got the "worst" over before it was warm, a good deal of it before the sun had even risen, as you can see from the photo above, taken of a far off hillside that was juuuuust beginning to see sun rays.

The Hip. started as a foot/ankle problem, from having one leg always be on the uphill side... so I started compensating, and then overcompensating, and now I can still only walk a couple blocks before that aching returns to my right hip... swimming has been a good ticket for it though, and I'm pleased to have found 3 reasonably priced pools to swim and run in here in Missoula.
By the time we took our first break that day, maybe 2 hours in, I was carrying my right leg in a make-shift sling I'd fashioned out of my belt. What started initially just as a way to put extra pressure on my leg and relieve the ache, turned into a way to lift my leg up over rocks and down the other side... needless to say, this was slow going for these approximately 17 miles after I developed this ailment and invented its treatment. My bicep was killing the next few days because of it, but has suffered no long-term ill effects (if anything, it has enjoyed a slight resurgence, after a relatively arm-lazy few weeks).

Cupboard Creek. Is a good deal farther out of the wilderness than we thought we'd get on our first day out, and carrying my leg the extra miles was tough but worth it come the following morning. see next entry.